NewsFinal Casting and New Dates Announced for OB’s Madame Melville, Due April 10

Mar 20, 2001

Final casting has been announced for the Off-Broadway debut of the West End hit, Richard Nelson's Madame Melville.

Final casting has been announced for the Off-Broadway debut of the West End hit, Richard Nelson's Madame Melville.

As previously reported, Joely Richardson stars opposite former child film star Macaulay Culkin (of “Home Alone” fame) in the show. Production sources now report that Richardson and Culkin will be joined by Robin Weigert, who recently completed a critically acclaimed run of Richard Nelson’s Goodnight Children Everywhere at San Francisco's ACT. Culkin is the only member of the UK cast to make the journey over. Richardson's role was played by Irene Jacob in London.

New dates for the Promenade Theatre run have also been announced. The show begins previews April 10 and will open May 3. [Previously, the show was scheduled to open on April 2.]

Madame Melville opened at the Vaudeville Theatre on Oct. 18, following previews from Oct. 7. It closed on March 11.

The play is set in 1966 Paris, where a 15-year-old American, Carl (Culkin) discovers a world where “beauty, loneliness, sex and art are one,” during the course of a single day and night spent with his teacher, Claudie Melville (Richardson). The third character, Ruth (Weigert) is an American ex-patriot and Melville’s close friend. Richardson has appeared in such films as "The Patriot," "101 Dalmatians," and "Event Horizon." A member of the British Redgrave-Richardson theatre family, her grandfather was Sir Michael Redgrave, her parents Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Richardson, her aunt Lynn Redgrave and her sister Natasha Richardson.

Weigert was on Broadway in the Lincoln Center production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. She has also appeared in Off Broadway’s A Place at the Table (MCC), Arms and the Man, (Roundabout) and the Public Theatre staging of Hamlet.

Culkin’s stage career began at four. His film debut was in “Rocket Gibraltar" playing Burt Lancaster’s grandson. Hooking up with director John Hughes, Culkin starred in “Uncle Buck” and then went on to major fame in Hughes’ popular “Home Alone” series. Other starring roles for Culkin include the films “My Girl,” “The Good Son” and “Richie Rich.” Playbill On-Line first reported Nelson's intention to move the play to New York in June 2000, and reported Culkin's interest on Aug. 2.Now 19, Culkin's last film role was in 1994's "Getting Even with Dad."

Madame Melville is produced in the West End by Gregory Mosher, Adam Kenwright and Andrew Fell.